Principal's News

Dear Parents/Carers,

    You may recall from last week’s newsletter that we have instigated a “Loveliness Challenge” at our morning briefings where two volunteers come forward and tell the entire school 3 lovely things that happened to them yesterday. It is such a positive and enjoyable experience to be a part of. One of our teachers came to me during the week and remarked that the kids are focusing much more on the things that go right during the day rather than the things that occasionally go wrong. You can almost feel the lift in mood as the children head off to class.

ASH WEDNESDAY Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday - the beginning of the season of Lent. Children from Grades 5 & 6 will be traveling, by bus, to the Church in order to attend the 10:00am Mass.  Parents and parishioners are welcome to attend at the Church.  Lent is the season when we prepare ourselves for Easter. Traditionally this preparation involves meditating on our own faults and shortcomings and endeavouring to improve ourselves. Logically then, the focus of our Religious Education Program at this time is on Reconciliation, which  supports our Parish’s Sacramental Program.

RECONCILIATION PROGRAM Our school plays an important role in our Parish’s Sacramental Program, and the Reconciliation Program began last week with our Parent Information meetings. 

Each year, children from our school, participate in the sacraments of Reconciliation, Confirmation and their First Communion. Catholic children from Grades 2 and grade 5 (usually) participate in the Reconciliation Program.

Grade 3 children, who are Catholic will be offered the opportunity to prepare for and participate in both Confirmation and Eucharist (First Communion).

The Sacrament is to be celebrated on either March 29 or 31. 

The act of RECONCILING is an important lesson that we all need to learn. It takes humility, empathy and honesty to admit that I might be the problem - that my behaviour or words have upset someone else, perhaps a friend, perhaps a sibling, a parent or a partner, husband or wife.

It takes courage to “confess” this and it takes love to forgive and reconcile. (No wonder Fr Michael often refers to the Sacrament of Reconciliation as excellent training for being married)!

So, teaching children HONESTY, EMPATHY, HUMILITY and COURAGE? We need more people like this around don’t we?

Good luck to all families involved in the Reconciliation Program this year. Our school’s Religious Education Program will be structured to support this program during Term 1.

COVID-19 Thank you to everyone for continuing to cooperate with the Covid-19 protocols such as testing, reporting and isolating. 

I will continue to send an email to alert families about any positive cases, however it will only be sent to you if the positive case is in the same grade level as your child/ren. If you receive no email then it would indicate that there are no cases amongst your child’s immediate peers.

As of Monday Feb 28 some mask rules have been relaxed at school: 

• Grade 3 to 6 students are asked to continue to wear a mask indoors as are staff. 
• Staff can now do Yard duty without the mask, which is very welcome. 
• It is no longer compulsory but “recommended” that children in Grades Foundation to 2 wear a mask whilst indoors at school.